Review: Tease by Sophie Jordan

Tease
(The Ivy Chronicles #2)
by Sophie Jordan
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: May 13, 2014
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:

A born flirt and good-time party girl, Emerson has never had a problem finding a willing guy. She’s always chosen her hook-ups carefully, and she’s never broken her three cardinal rules:

Never let them see the real you.

Never fall in love.

Always leave them begging for more.

Then comes Shaw. A hotty from the wrong side of the tracks, he’s immune to her flirtatious banter and come-hither smile. After rescuing her from a disastrous night at a biker bar, he doesn’t even try to take her to bed—he calls her a tease and sends her home instead. Unable to resist a challenge, or forget the sexy dark-eyed bad-boy biker, she vows to bring him to his knees.

But instead of making Shaw beg, she finds herself craving him. For the first time in her life, she’s throwing out her rulebook. Suddenly, she’s the one panting for a guy she can’t control. A guy who won’t settle for anything less than the real Emerson, who forces her to do things she’s never imagined, including facing a past she thought she’d buried.

A guy who just might leave her wanting more . . .

My thoughts…

Emerson is what everyone considers a tease. She lures a guy in, whispers naughty nothings into his ear, and then leaves him hanging. Every. Single. Time. From the outside people would consider Emerson a privileged rich girl but she’s really not. In fact, it isn’t until she’s left stranded at a sketch biker bar, thus putting her in the path of Shaw, that you realize she isn’t what she seems. She’s hiding a lot of dark secrets and it isn’t until Shaw comes into her life that she finds herself wanting to open up to someone.

Emerson was kind of a frustrating character. I mean, she played a dicey game by always leading guys on all the time. The sad thing was, she set out to do it. It wasn’t like she went out and started to hook up with someone only to change her mind. She actually liked the game she played by “being in control” when she turned them down at and walked away. She’d go to a bar and accept drinks from guys, flirt with them, maybe kiss them, dance with them, and then “buh-bye”, leave with her friends or move on to another guy. I will honestly say that while her character was frustrating in that regard, I also kind of liked her. I mean, on the outside she SHOULD be a pampered princess. She comes from a family with wealth and should get everything handed to her on a silver platter. However, you soon realize that she is kind of estranged from her family and wants to make it on her own. And I really admired her for that.

Shaw was by far the best part of the story. Not because he’s a guy, or because he’s THE guy in the story, but because he was genuinely a nice person. He sees this prim girl at a biker bar, drunk off her butt, deserted by her so-called “friends” and he takes it upon himself to escort her home. He sees all the biker dudes leering at her and knows she’s not safe and instead of staying to enjoy his night, he spends the night taking care of someone else. Then when they bump into each other later in the book, the same thing happens. He swoops in and rescues her from a bad situation. He was always there for her and always had her back even when she was a complete brat to him. I just genuinely liked his character.

While this is the second in the series, it’s the first book I’ve read from it. The previous book dealt with Emerson’s friend. I didn’t feel like I was left out by not reading the previous book. And honestly, the only reason why I read this book first is because my library only has the second and third book in the series. Weird, I know… don’t ask though. So, hopefully they get it in so that I can read it because I really enjoyed this book and Pepper’s character. So, I know I would really enjoy her story.

I actually finished this book within a handful of hours. It’s a short read but it was a good one. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a contemporary new adult. There’s nothing flashy or fancy going on, it’s your basic new adult romance, but it’s well written and entertaining. These two definitely have chemistry and the banter between them was amusing. So yeah, even though it kind of fits the new adult mold, it’s still an entertaining read.

Favorite part…

“Let’s go. I don’t want to keep you from the things you have to do . . . like plan the next crime wave with your biker gang.”
“Sure. And you don’t want to miss your nail appointment.”
I cocked my head. “That’s tomorrow.”

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